About the Building
The Berney Family Welcome Center is where your K-State experience begins. Friendly campus tour guides, a fully staffed information center and interactive digital wall screens will introduce you to the rich heritage and traditions of the university, as well as connect you with all of the campus resources you need to have a one-of-a-kind visit.
The Berney Family Welcome Center is located on the east side of Memorial Stadium, a monument built in 1924 to honor the K-State students and alumni who lost their lives while serving in World War I.
To help fund construction of the stadium, which was projected to cost $500,000, students and faculty pledged $157,000 and the community raised $62,500. Its architectural style was designed to complement that of Nichols Hall (formerly Nichols Gymnasium), and eventually influenced the design of the West Stadium Center and Vanier Football Complex at the Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
In response to the rapid rise in popularity surrounding football and newly founded college teams around the turn of the century, the stadium also served as an athletic field for the K-State football team. The first game held in Memorial Stadium was against Washburn University in 1922.
(Historical data and pictures provided by Cliff Hight, university archivist.)
Modern uses
Today, the Berney Family Welcome Center, named for Rand and Patti Berney, both trustees of the K-State Foundation, is home to New Students Services and the Career Center. The building serves as a central location for resources that welcome prospective and new students, and provides career and employment services to current students making the transition from college to career.
The renovated building features a Great Room, which can be reserved for private events, Davis Theater, two conference rooms, 25 interview rooms and private office space for NSS and the Career Center. Davis Theater, which can seat 92 with 88 seats and four ADA-accessible spaces, is used on smaller event and visit days to give prospective students and their families a firsthand look at the student life experience at K-State. The Career Center also hosts events for both students and employers in Davis Theater.
Conference rooms on the first and second floor can hold between 19 and 24 guests and feature cutting-edge technology to facilitate in-house and remote presentations. Both spaces can be reserved for outside groups.
The first-floor interview rooms provide space for prospective students to meet with admissions representatives to discuss majors, scholarships and housing options as part of their personalized K-State visit, as well as a professional environment for Career Center staff to advise students participating in interviews or a career assessment. The Career Closet, housed on the first floor in the Career Center, provides students with the opportunity to make use of gently used professional attire donated by the K-State community for interviews and other professional events.
Current students can also meet with career specialists on the second floor to determine a major or see what career opportunities fit best with their current major.
New features
In addition to the 37,500 square feet of new space on the stadium's east side, the renovation also incorporated several energy-efficient features while keeping with the building's original architectural style. Both sides of the stadium now feature a green roof over part of what was originally the stadium seating space. It is the largest green roof in the state of Kansas and adds several benefits to the building, including improved structural integrity, as the green roof weighs less than shoulder-to-shoulder spectators in the stands, and an extended lifespan of the roof itself, due to the plants and soil protecting the roof membrane from the elements. The plants on the roof are native to Kansas and are intended to resemble the Konza Prarie once fully grown.
Other energy-saving features include a layer of spray foam insulation to help maintain indoor temperatures, the use of the campus chilled-water and steam lines and LED lighting throughout the building.
A nod to the past
While the home of the of the K-State football team has moved to the Bill Snyder Family Stadium and Vanier Sports Complex, the athletic field inside Memorial Stadium is still used by the K-State Marching Band for practices, club sports teams and students looking to exerice or play a pick-up game of Frisbee or football. The field now features an AstroTurf surface and a rubberized track around the field.
Building the Berney Family Welcome Center
Project Data
Groundbreaking: November 19, 2014
Project budget: $18 million. Project costs, which included design, construction, furnishings and technology, were all privately funded.
Area: 37,500 square feet
Number of interview rooms: 25 interview rooms, including 12 for the career center, 11 for New Student Services and two on the second floor.
Energy-efficient features: A living green roof over both sides of the stadium, and a layer of closed-cell spray foam insulation to better maintain indoor temperatures and reduce moisture, resulting in lower energy costs. Other features include LED lighting fixtures throughout the entire building and utilization of campus chilled water and steam.
Construction start date: March 2015
Completion date: May 2016
Architect: Ebert Mayo Design Group
Contractor: Hutton Construction
Video Gallery
videos courtesy of the Kansas State University Foundation
Honoring the past
Career Center: preparing K-State students for success
The K-State visit experience
Construction Gallery
Check out our construction photo gallery to see the beautiful Berney Family Welcome Center take shape during the last year!
Photo credit: Kerri Day Keller
